Pink Party

Tonight Marie and I got to attend a pink party in her honor. It was so much fun. Two of my friends from bible study threw it and as they put on the invitation we were celebrating all things pink. We had pink lemonade, pink Alfredo sauce, pink cupcakes, strawberries etc etc etc. The girls all took a bubble bath in the jacuzzi tub and watched Barbie Princess and the Pauper. My friend Diana made them t-shirts that said "Pink Party" had all the girls names and then said "Celebrating all things pink." Marie is tucked in her bed with her shirt on. There were so many pictures that I took I have uploaded them to an album that you can see. I did not take any of them out because I think they are so cute. It was so nice to just get away for the night and think of girl things and let the girls run around and play. I hope everyone enjoys the pictures. By the way if you don't remember how to get to my online albums you just go to picasaweb.google.com/jamielyn

Love to all.

Question: Can a day get any worse?

Answer: Yes! Ok so if you read the last posting you will know that Thursday night was not good. Friday started out ok however rainy it was. We had a swamp in the front and back yards because it rained ALL day long. So after picking Marie up from school we decided to stay home for the rest of the night. I checked my voice mail and there was a message from our Realtors office saying that they had scheduled a showing for Saturday between 3:30-4:30.

Happy to have a showing I realized I needed to get the entire house back in order after having the carpet cleaned and also get the house smelling more like a house. So I have some carpet sprinkle and got to work. I had most of the living room carpet vacuumed and started working on the rug. Now mind you at this point I have the rest of the house left to vacuum. Well the motor on the vacuum decides to quit working. So I am stuck with and entire house that I have sprinkled powder on and no vacuum to clean it with.

Luckily we have good neighbors who were able to loan me their vacuum. So now I sit in a pretty clean house. I still have to make up my bed and finish cleaning my office. As I clean my office Marie is in here messing it up so hopefully I will be able to gt it clean in time for the showing.

So today, Saturday, is going better. I have to say the one high point of my day yesterday happened while I was trying to close my eyes for an hour. Someone rung the doorbell and I ignored it because the last thing I wanted to do was deal with any people. Well when I went to leave to pick Marie up from school there were a dozen roses on the front porch. I could not for the life of me think why I would be getting flowers. Well I have to say I have the best husband in the world. He remembers things that for the life of me I could never remember. Ten years ago yesterday JJ and I started dating. I know he remembers these things, but I never expected roses. It was the one big thing of my day however I cried the entire way to pick Marie up because I have such a wonderful husband.

Well I must get going and attempt to get this office cleaned. Hopefully today will be better than the past few. If anything the sun is shining so that is a start.

Love to all.

The Worst Night

Ok I am living on so little sleep right now that I am not sure how I will make it through bible study this morning. Let me tell everyone the story of why I am about to fall asleep.

As my readers will know I had the carpet cleaned yesterday. Now unless you watch the weather channel you would not know that we had rain storms all day yesterday except of course when they were here to clean the carpets which was a blessing. Anyway they did a wonderful job on the carpet. They even got out the one stain from the night we moved into the house and I dropped a cherry limeade on the carpet. Well along with a great job they had to use a lot more solution than normal. I finally placed what the carpet smell that was all over the house. It was a mix of formaldehyde and old Windex window cleaner. Not a good mix. Plus the carpet was still wet. So in my office I sat with this window open. I could not get to the window in the living room to get it open because the living room was REALLY wet. When I was able to get into my bedroom I opened those windows, but discovered the rain was blowing and got our bedroom wet again. So I lived through the smell and wetness until I went to get Marie from school.

So after school we went to the mall. Ok I hate shopping with a child who now has an opinion on what she wants to wear. Almost two hours later we decided on a few outfits. As a side note most of them are being returned because when we got home and she was picking out an outfit for today she mentioned that she did not want to wear this one or that one because it was a little itchy. Well in the two hours of trying on these clothes do you not think there was a good idea to tell me any of this!!!!!!! Ok so we came home and some of the carpet was still wet. The smell was just as bad or in my opinion worse because the house had been closed up for four hours.

Following JJ's advice we were to sleep in my office with the window open. So I inflated the aerobed and put Marie to bed in here and I found a way to leap on to the couch and get that window open in the living room. I also put the air on about 60 to get some air flowing. So I laid on the couch freezing my nose off with two huge candles lit. Marie would not fall asleep so at almost 10 I went to lay with her. The smell was in my office because she had closed the window. I opened the window back up and went to fall asleep. This was when the fun started....

The cat was not happy about us being in here on the aerobed so she kept coming in and walking on me. I tried closing her out, but then she cried and scratched on the doors. Ok at about 1145 I woke up because I felt like I was laying on the floor. Well apparently our aerobed has a small hole in it. So I re inflated and went to lay in the lay-z-boy that is still in my office. That not being the comfort that I wanted and at this point the headache I was working on all day had become so bad that all I wanted to do was curl up in a little ball. So I went to lay back down and found the Marie had taken up the entire bed. I moved her over and laid back down. For the rest of the night I would fall asleep for a little while and then wake right back up when I had hit the floor. So to complain a little my back hurts, my neck hurts, I am grumpy, I still have a headache, and my aerobed has a hole somewhere or it is leaking air somewhere.

Through all this you will never guess who had a good night sleep?! You guessed right Marie.

I will close with the smell has subsided somewhat and the carpet is dry.

Love to all.

I found a better way

Hello All! I have to admit that today I am typing in the most comfortable way possible so this could be long. I must start with a a little background and then I will get into why I am so comfy! Since the house has been on sale there have been a lot of comments about the carpet needing to be cleaned. So I made the appointment for today to get the carpet cleaned. I found out I did not have to move the big pieces of furniture, but did need to move the smaller things. So I spent most of yesterday moving some stuff around. Since I will not be able to walk on the carpet for a few hours after they clean it I decided I would want to be comfortable so I moved my lay-z-boy chair into my office. So as I was sitting in it I discovered that if I moved it closer to my desk I could sit with my feet up and type! Maple is sitting in the doorway wondering what is about to happen. I already put her in the bathroom, but I needed something out of it and she ran out. She now will not go near the bathroom. In a little while I will have to force her in there.

Roman you may be asking is at doggy day camp. Doggy day camp you may ask...Well with the house on the market there have been some times when he needs to be out of the house for the day. I found this place called Camp Bow Wow in Moore where they have day camp and overnight camp. I just love this place. The animals get to play all day together, the little ones in one area and the bigger ones in the other. They can play inside and outside. Once it gets warmer they will have little pools they can splash in. They get put in a cabin at lunch time for a little rest time. He always comes home and sleeps the next day. When we pull up he about jumps out of the car. Whenever we travel he is going to stay at Camp. Last time we went out of town and boarded him at a vet. I felt so bad because he was in a little cage and only got put out twice a day. At Camp Bow Wow he plays all day and then gets a bigger place with a fleece blanket and a campfire treat o sleep. During the night they have classical music playing so they don't feel lonely. To top everything off they have online web cams so we can watch and make sure he is doing ok. Plus each time I call and make him an appointment they always tell me how much they love him. Anyway enough about Roman.

Marie is still doing great. We get her report card today so we shall see how she does. She has done great all the other times so I am not too worried. She had a week off from gymnastics so she is slowly getting back into the swing of things. She is very excited about going to an Easter egg hunt on Wednesday. There is a chapter of my college sorority here and I am a member of the alumni group. The college chapter is having an Easter egg hunt for the kids of the alumni. She is very excited about getting to go to a sorority house for the first time. She watches Legally Blonde all the time and the main girl lives in a sorority house in the beginning. Marie also asked that I let everyone know she has a dance recital on May 19th at 7pm. She really would like anyone that wants to visit us to come that weekend. She will be doing ballet, tap, and jazz at this recital. She seems more excited about this recital than the others so it should be a good one.

Other than this nothing more is going on around here. Tomorrow is uniform break day, crazy hat, and ice cream sundae day. She is very excited about the day. They should have been off school tomorrow, but are using the day to make up for a snow day we had earlier in the year. So the principal wants it to be a fun day. She got a pink cowboy hat that has a crown on it. I am not sure if she wants to put anything else on it because she really likes the hat the way it is. I don't care one way or another. I will make sure that I take a picture of her tomorrow so everyone can see how cute she looks. Let us hear from everyone when you get a chance.

Love to all.

I have the worlds craziest dog...

Ok crazy or stupid would be a good word for Roman this morning. We have been having issues since well... everyone knows. He has been peeing inside the house which he never does. So I figured maybe he is just bored or something so my plan was to start taking him on walks. When we left the house this morning I brought him in the car to drop off Marie at school. It was not raining when we left the house, but when we returned it was raining so I was not going to take him on a walk. Well he decided different. So with umbrella I took him on a walk around the block. He got nice and wet, but went potty while we were out so maybe that is what he needed. Now hopefully he will settle down in his room. That is if Maple will stop pacing in front of the baby gate. She likes to torture him!

We are still having sleeping problems in our house, but last night I curled up with her in my bed and had her asleep by 10. I put her back in her bed at that point and I actually went to bed. It was nice to be in bed asleep before 1 or 2. She did pretty good at gym having been off for a week. She almost has her headstand and has started working on one hand cartwheels. It is so nice to see how much she has learned in the 7 months that she has been training with Steve. Before we started she could barely do a cartwheel, could not do a backward roll, and was too afraid of the balance beam to get on it. That has all changed. We are so thankful that the Nunnos opened their gym when they did. Now if we move she has a great base to take with her where ever we may move.

Not that anyone really cares, but we had another one of our meals last night. It was gourmet macaroni and cheese. I was not sure what you could do to mac and cheese to make it gourmet, but they sure found a way. I cut up some turkey to put in it and boy was it good. Marie had two bowls full. It was so yummy! I feel so fortunate to have this stuff in our freezer to turn to.

Well I am going to go and take a little nap. I think I deserve a few minutes of quiet time before I have to really start my day. We have another open house on Sunday so I will spend the rest of the week and Friday night cleaning up the house to get it show ready. Our bible study pink party has been moved to Saturday night instead of Friday so we will go to church on Sunday this week. Roman will head off to Camp Bow Wow for Sunday to get him out of the house. He loves playing there to it will be a nice treat for him.

Love to all...

Jr. Zookeeper Continued...

Hello All. What an eventful day we had today. I learned something today when I dropped Marie off at the Little River Zoo this morning. First off I must preface by saying I got dressed this morning in my khaki's, brown shirt, and my cute little leopard shoes (Target $9.99). So I went to drop her off. They have us walk into the zoo and bring the kids to a little picnic area. Now mind you this zoo has some animals roaming around such as big ducks. Well they are not the nicest ducks. So after I told her goodbye I started to walk back to my car. Well one of the ducks chased after me pecking at my shoes. I had to make a run for my car. Need-less-to-say I do not like ducks.

Marie had a great time again today. Her teacher out there told me that she is the biggest helper she has had. She also said that no matter what needed to be done Marie did not complain once. I guess this goes to show me that when she likes what she is doing she does not complain! Her big thing the past two days has been she got to make the rabbit her salad and bring it to the rabbit. I have some pictures of her from the day that I have put on a web album for all to see. The site address is http://picasaweb.google.com/jamielyn I will try to keep putting up pictures there as I get them. I found that this service through Google makes sharing my pictures so much easier. I have yet to try to order prints, but if I do I will let everyone know what is was like.

I must also share the horrible night I had last night. I put Marie to bed about 7:30 and was waiting for her to fall asleep. If she does not have school the next day I let her sleep in the room with me. Ok so around 10 she comes in and tells me that she saw an ant on my side table and one on the floor. Stressed I ran into my bedroom and found the one ant on my side table. Then I go and look next to the bed she is sleeping on. I notice a few ants near the trash can so I figure there were a few in there. Well in the corner was Marie's chewy sweet tarts that I thought she had finished two days earlier when I found the empty wrapper. Well you could barely tell that the candy was yellow. First off I HATE ANTS! Second it took me about an hour to get them all cleaned up. For the rest of the night I felt like I had ants crawling on me. I took a very hot shower, but still felt them. So now we have ant traps in our bedroom and Marie got in quite a bit of trouble.

Well I guess that is all that has happened the past few days. We had plans to go to Stations of the Cross tonight, as we have been doing most of Lent, but she was so dirty that it took quite a while to get her cleaned up. I guess we will not go any more this Lent. Next Friday some friends from bible study are throwing a "Spa" party for Marie and I. We are going to dress in pink PJs (thanks for the Valentine present honey!) and have pedicures and the kiddos are going to watch Barbie princess movies while the moms chat. It should be a lot of fun. I just love my bible study. They have been so good to me giving me Barnes and Noble, Michael's, and Sonic gift cards as well as this party. Most of us have been together for two years and when we leave I will miss them so much!!

Love to all.

Jr. Zookeeper

Greetings from Norman. In my quest to keep this blog up to date I will give everyone a brief over view of what went on today.

Marie started Jr. Zookeeper at the Little River Zoo here in Norman. She has done this two other times. The main point of this program is to teach children about how to take care of animals and how to respect them. This zoo is unique because all of their animals have been abandoned or were rescued. Each animal has a story about how they got to where they are today. What I love about this zoo is that when you visit everyone gets a tour guide who takes you around and tells you all about the animals.

Marie herself has so many different stories to tell about these animals. The one I got to hear about today was the animal named Toby. It is so named because its mom pulled off two of its toes. What I also love about this experience is that Marie is worked very hard. They have them doing the jobs that a zookeeper would do. They clean out cages (poop and all), they feed the animals, and they have special little places they go in the zoo to rest and relax. During the summer when she went she actually was on the news being a pooper scooper girl. We will have to make that DVD available for everyone to see.

When I picked her up from the zoo she looked beat and had a bird feather sticking out of her braid. We got home and played fetch with Roman. Actually I threw the toys and she chashed after them for about 30 minutes. Roman and I had a nice time watching her! I have her well trained. She is in the shower now and dinner will be ready as soon as she is done. In case anyone is wondering we are having sweet and sour meatballs with rice and then probably strawberries and grapes and maybe some carrots.

I have to tell everyone about where we got the dinner we are having. There is a place here called Dish it up. You go and prepare the food and then freeze it. We decided to try it this month since JJ is normally the main cook. The food is really good and many of the things like our meatballs can just be thrown in the crock pot. On Monday and Wednesday when we are at the gym until after 6 these make an easy meal to come home to. I know most cities have some sort of place like this. They offered a discount to teachers (since I sub I got to have it) and they actually delivered the food to my school. It is worth trying. Makes our life a lot easier. I also think this would be a fun business to have. Something think about in the future.

Ok I need to go and hurry her up. Love to all! I will try to take some pictures of the tired and dirty girl tomorrow. If I don't get any tomorrow then at her graduation on Saturday I will get some.

Love to all.

My oh my....

I did not realize it had been as long as it has since I last updated this thing. Actually I don't think there is anyone really watching this thing, but in case there are still people out there here is an update and some pictures.

So Marie is still doing great in school. She loves gymnastics and ballet and just had another gymnastics meet last Friday. She got a 1st place in Vault and Beam and a 2nd place in Bars and Floor. She would have gotten a 1st in Floor if she had not forgotten a handstand during the routine. I think she was just so happy that she had done everything else great. She did a great job regardless of what ribbons she got. Here is a picture of her and her coach. If we end up moving to Texas we are going to really miss this gym and all the coaches.

JJ is doing well. He is enjoying his job, but I think is looking forward to getting out the Air Force. Hopefully he will have a job lined up soon so we will know where we are living. JJ and Marie went to the Daddy Daughter dance at the beginning of February. They seemed to have a great time. I felt really bad because as they were getting ready I was passing a kidney stone. I did however get a beautiful picture of the two of them before they headed off. I have used this picture as the picture on my checks so where ever I go I can see the two of them. Ok I guess I will share the picture. In my opinion I have the most beautiful little girl in the world.

I am still working at the school. I really enjoy being up there with all the kiddos and am learning a lot about myself and the patience I have (or lack there of...)

The house is still on the market. We have only had two people come and look at the house which is a little depressing. However we do not really want the house to sell until school gets out. We put it on the market early because houses in our area take about 100 days before they sell. I am going to miss this house when we leave however I will be happy to move on hopefully closer to family.

I really cannot think of anything else to report. I can tell everyone two things I have discovered I do not like to do. #1 put my hand into the sink disposal to pull things out that fell in and got stuck and #2 take out the trash. For those of you who know me you will know why I am forced to do these things now and for those of you who have not figured it out email me privately and I will let you in on the information.

Well I have started reading Pride and Prejudice and am really into it so I would like to go and read some more. Next blog post I will tell everyone about the trip we are planning to Florida at the end of school year and what we have scheduled! Love to all.